Intxausti seizes opportunity to win mountain stage and take over race lead in Tour of Beijing

Martin, Lopez and Costa caught out by perfectly-timed attack and focussed push to the line

Showing fine tactical instinct amid stop/start racing on the final climb of Mentougou Miaofeng mountain, Movistar’s Beñat Intxausti Elorriaga capitalised on a slight lull with two kilometres to go, accelerated clear and then drove hard to the line to win the stage and take over as race leader in the Tour of Beijing.

Riding strongly, the Spaniard held off a hard chasing Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp), who left it slightly too late to respond, putting in a strong final kilometre but running out of time.

He crossed the line three seconds back, while Sky’s David Lopez and world road race champion Rui Costa finished third and fourth, four and six seconds back respectively.

Costa’s presence on the same squad as Intxausti saw him play a role in marking riders after his team-mate jumped clear.

Romain Bardet (Ag2r La Mondiale) and 2011/2012 Tour of Beijing winner Tony Martin both finished eleven seconds back, while the rest of the field were scattered down the mountain. Overnight leader Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) was dropped as expected and slipped out of the red jersey.

Intxausti’s ten second advantage over Martin is partly due to his second place in the first intermediate sprint. He said that this wasn’t premeditated, but rather a consequence of the way things played out.

“To be honest, we didn't have a plan to attack from the start and take the bonus seconds, but there was a pretty long downhill in the beginning, we got into a break and Iván Gutiérrez worked his heart out for me so I could notch up those two seconds for the overall standings,” he said.

“I felt quite well yesterday on the climbs and knew that as well myself as Rui could be battling for the stage win today.”

With tomorrow’s stage being a fast, flat race in Beijing that is expected to finish in a bunch sprint, Intxausti looks almost certain to win the race. Dan Martin was the favourite before today’s stage but with his rival getting a time bonus and moving ten seconds clear, he will find it difficult to get the time back.

Ditto for Lopez, who is thirteen seconds adrift with one day to go.

How it played out:

Although it was just 150.5 kilometres in length, the fourth stage of the Tour of Beijing was certain to be the most decisive of the five-day event. The race from Yanqing to Mentougou Miaofeng mountain featured four categorised climbs, with the final one of those being the only summit finish of the race.

Those climbs were the category one Xian Ren Dong Village summit (km 61.5), the second category Gao Ya Kou (km 75), the third cat Chen Jia Zhuang (km 129.5) and the first category finishing climb of Mentougou Miaofeng mountain (km 150.5).

There were also three bonus sprints at Nan Kou town (km 31.5), Xi Feng Shan village (km 92.5) and Yang Fang village (km 105.5).

There were constant attacks from the start of the stage but the first proper move didn’t get established until kilometre 29. Four riders nipped clear there, namely Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma Quick Step), Beñat Intxausti, José Ivan Gutierrex (both Movistar) and Maurits Lammertink (Vacansoleil DCM).

Stybar beat Intxausti and the others at the first intermediate sprint at kilometre 31.5, where the break had a two minute 45 second lead. This dropped to just over two minutes by kilometre 40, prompting Intxausti to drop back to the peloton.

Over ten kilometres later, six riders began chasing. They were Stijn Vandenberg (Omega Pharma Quick Step), Moreno Hofland (Belkin), Damiano Caruso (Cannondale), Daniele Ratto (Cannondale), Wesley Sulzberger and Mitch Docker (both Orica GreenEdge), and closed to 25 seconds of the lead group by the top of the category one Xian Ren Dong Village climb (km 61.5).

Gutierrez led over the top there, with Lammerink and Stybar following him and Caruso being the first of the chasers.

The latter bridged across soon afterwards, along with Vandenburgh and Hofland, and together the six riders raced on to the next climb of Gao Ya Kou (category two, kilometre 75). Caruso beat Gutierrez, Stybar and the others to the top, while Gutierrez led Sybar and Caruso across the line at the subsequent second intermediate sprint.

The gap there was one minute 50 seconds, and Lammertink was race leader on the road. However Hofland took over as virtual race leader when he beat Lammertink at the third intermediate sprint (km 105.5). Behind, Dan Martin’s Garmin-Sharp team were leading the chase, and cut it down to just over a minute.

Concerned by this, Vandenbergh pushed clear alone inside the final 25 kilometres, but was caught shortly after he took the points atop the category three Chen Jia Zhuang.

The peloton raced onto the final climb, where race leader Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) soon went out the back. Up front, the Belkin team was setting the pace prior to the inevitable explosion of climbers.

Sky’s Joe Dombrovski was the first to try to break the elastic, jumping hard but being covered. Next to try was Lotto Belisol’s Adam Hansen, who got a gap and pushed hard to gain time. Marco Pinotti (BMC Racing Team) saw the danger and rode hard to get across, then other riders also bridged, prompting a stall and then a regrouping.

With five kilometres to go Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp) moved closer to the front, but didn’t follow when David Lopez (Sky) attacked. The Spaniard was then joined by Jan Bakelants (RadioShack Leopard), who latched onto his back wheel with four kilometres to go.

The duo had a twenty second gap at that point, handing them a chance. Behind, the other riders were watching each other, stalling slightly before last year’s race winner Tony Martin (Omega Pharma Quick Step) kicked and stretched things out.

BMC’s Mathias Frank jumped and was tracked by Dan Martin. The surges cut the gap to the leader to just ten seconds, then Martin kicked and got a slight gap on those behind. However he eased back once he bridged to the leaders, enabling the others to get back up to him.

World champion Rui Costa (Movistar) was next to move, attacking hard but being tracked by Martin. The Irishman moved to the front, but didn’t react when Movistar’s Beñat Intxausti catapulted from the back of the group and raced clear with two kilometres to go.

The surge immediate earned him a gap. Behind, David Lopez started chasing but couldn't make an impression. Dan Martin and Costa jumped across and then the Irishman attacked, desperately trying to get across to the leader. However he left it too late, and Intxausti hit the line first, taking the win, the bonus seconds and the race lead.

He will start tomorrow’s final stage ten seconds clear of Martin, thirteen up on Lopez and eighteen ahead of Costa. The stage is almost certain to end in a bunch sprint, ensuring a likely overall win for him in the final WorldTour race of the season.